


Talk About the Weather

by saturnbaby



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gay Disaster Keith (Voltron), Gay Disaster Shiro (Voltron), Hair Dyeing, I am so sorry to be this late, M/M, Marie Antoinette Syndrome (kinda), Sheithlentines 2019, Supportive Matt Holt, bad-ass tattooed biker leather jacket and combat boots Keith, mention of past accident
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-02-24
Packaged: 2019-11-04 19:48:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17904473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saturnbaby/pseuds/saturnbaby
Summary: Shiro's getting every day more and more grey hairs, so he decides to do something about it. Luckily, newly-acquainted  Keith Kogane has some experience dyeing and bleaching hair.





	Talk About the Weather

**Author's Note:**

> The title is inspired from the song "Head Over Heels" by the band Tears for Fears. I love it so much.
> 
> This work is my Sheithlentines gift for Jordan, @Supa_Cutie_Pie, (I really wish I could add the link but I don't really understand how it works, so I hope to edit this when I figure it out.)  
> I am SO sorry it's so late, literally on the day of the deadline. My classes are more than I expected, the first draft hat I was writing wasn't really good enough and to be honest I also did procrastinate it.
> 
> All mistakes are mine, this has no beta reader. AND I am no hairdresser nor do I have any knowledge on bleaching hair nor dyeing it, so bear with me. 
> 
> The prompt I followed is this one:  
> "The other, is a college age get together with sheith. In which Shiro is the golden boy of the campus, but he is in a really weird place at the moment life wise. In the middle of changing up his whole life plan after being told his arm is suffering a disease, the stress of school and diagnosis and work causes his hair to start graying- Rapidly. It adds onto his stress, and he doesn't want people to know he's falling apart- so he contracts the local college punk Keith, riddled with tattoos and dyed purple red hair and a cool motorcycle- into dying his hair completely white. Keith is both very amused, worried, and very patient with Shiro who will.not.sit.still and gets bleach on Keiths nice towels. Keith looks really pretty under dim crappy apartment lights and Shiro is in the sort of mental place where he's willing to give anything a try."  
> I really hope it does justice to it, and it's close to your expectations Jordan!

“Are you looking at your white hairs again?”

Shiro yelps, almost falling and breaking his neck on the sink. “Matt, you almost gave me a heart attack” Shiro, hand on his chest, tries to catch his breath and lower his heart rate.

“Sorry buddy, but you need to stop looking at it so much.” Matt means well, but Shiro can’t help to feel really annoyed by him.  
“I can’t help it, it looks so weird, I swear yesterday this part right here was black, and today out of nowhere it’s freaking white!” Frustration boils inside Shiro’s brain, venting it on his best friend. “And I don’t even know if it will be only on my head, are my eyebrows going to get white too?”  
“Shiro listen, you’re going through a process, you had a really serious accident, the doctor said that it’s not unusual for people to have some side effects after. And apparently, your side effect is fast development of white hairs.” Matt smiles at him, sensing Shiro’s mood getting better.” And scars and the Terminator arm, and somewhat PTSD and nightmares aaaand”  
“Yeah, yeah, I get it thanks a lot for that, what would I do without my amazing genius friend?”  
“You and a whole lot of amputees would have some lame-ass government issued prosthetics, my man.” Shiro laughs and Matt counts it as a win.

After Shiro’s accident, his whole world changed, between physical and mental therapy, the prosthetic test process, the nightmares, catching up with his master’s degree and now getting his hair white has been affecting it a lot. 

“Did I hear someone forget to mention my stellar contribution to the construction and the whole concept of that majestic piece of engineering?” An annoyed voice yells from the living room. 

They smiled and headed towards the sound, to find Matt’s baby sister arriving, backpack on and books under her arm. When Shiro was about to greet her he noticed another person inside the apartment, a highly attractive man. All of his appearance made him look like a bad-ass character in a video game or a movie, lithe complexion, probably an inch or two smaller than Shiro, black, shoulder-length hair with red highlights, a simple maroon t-shirt with black jeans and grey combat boots, on top of all, he had a dark grey leather jacket.

Be still my beating heart. Shiro thinks.

“Your hair is looking cool with all that salt vibe,” Katie says to Shiro, interrupting his on-going moment of thirst over the attractive stranger. “It kinda goes with your wise old man position on the gang.”  
“Great, thanks a lot, Katie.” Matt says with words covered with pride. “We just had a conversation about it, because mister vain here has been counting them since the morning.” 

Great, now Handsome Leather Jacket Guy™ is going to think he’s a giant Narcissus.

“Really? Does it bother you?” Katie asks, behind her, HLJG™ looks at him with a perfect poker face. And now Shiro can’t help at his amazing chiseled jaw, with a long scar along his right cheek almost touching his eye, incredible cheekbones, stunningly hydrated lips, and apparently REAL purple eyes.  
“A little bit, it mostly bothers me how it’s transitioning, I’d like it if it just turned white overnight, having it a weird mix of a lot of white hair and some black looks weird to me.” Shiro shrugs and tries to stop staring at HLJG™.  
“Now that you mention it, it does look slightly off. If it really is bothering you, you should do something about it,” she suggests.  
“Like what? Shave it?”  
“Mmm no, that’s far too drastic, you could maybe bleach it, you know, as in dye it white.” She turns to the HLJG™ “You kinda do that when you dye your red streaks, right Keith?”

Keith looks at her and seems to assess the situation, and by situation, it seems that he is unashamedly he assesses Shiro, looking not only at his hair, but he seemed to also look at his body, which made Shiro feel embarrassed and happy at the same time.

“Not really, red doesn’t need to bleach. But when I had it pastel pink and purple I did bleach it.” He looks into Shiro’s eyes, “If you wanted to save yourself the salon fee, I could help you do it.”

I want you to help me breathe with your mouth

“I really would appreciate it, thank you” He’s smiling at Keith, possibly looking very stupid but he doesn’t care. Then it hits him… “Oh, I’m Shiro, well, Takashi Shirogane, by the way.”

He holds his hand towards Keith when they make contact Shiro makes an extra effort not to swoon at the warm, slightly calloused feeling. He hears a soft miraculous chuckle come out from the other man’s lips.

“Yeah, I know who you are, you’re basically the university’s golden trophy boy, with your grades and research that blows every professor’s mind. To be fair, your project on The Formation of Dark Matter Halos and High-Redshift Galaxies was really interesting.”  
“Oh, that? He worked on that when he was in the hospital non-stop, he drove most of the nurses mad with all the rambling and getting up with no permission” Matt’s voice actually startled Shiro, he had forgotten that he wasn’t alone in the world with Keith.  
“Keith’s in my classes, we’ve been working on a project on radio pulsars. We have it pretty much finished for our deadline.” Katie introduces Keith, “Also, he broke your record on the sym, first try and all.” She looks at Shiro with a weird expression, and possibly an intention too.

But Shiro is too busy swooning on the inside, not only Keith is INCREDIBLY attractive, he’s read Shiro’s papers, is clever enough to keep up with Katie to work on a project together and he seems to be a prodigy pilot. 

“Anyway, you nerds hungry? We were thinking we could buy some pizzas to give us some sustenance while we work on the project.”  
“I think we’re all nerds here Pidge.” Matt jokes, “But I could eat, and mister Grumpy Muscles probably needs his gargantuan dose of calories to maintain his buff bod.”

If Shiro had one reason to take back his friendship with Matt it would be this exact moment. He feels so embarrassed in front of Keith, his only response is to flip off his best friend and request Katie his usual pizza. With no more strength to face any more mortification, he heads to his room to lay in his bed, wallowing in shame and the sudden shock of a full-force recent crush.

I am a mess.

When the pizza arrives, Keith and Katie seem to be deep in their project, they don’t seem to even hear the bell ring, so Shiro receives the pizzas and pays for them. He distributes the pizzas quietly, in his room, Matt appears to be working in another schematic for a prosthetic, this time it looks like some kind of high-mobility leg design.

“Looking good bud,” Shiro tells him, “Here’s your pizza, remember that it’s here and you have to eat it please.”  
“Yeah, I’ll buy them on the next grocery trip,” Matt says, clearly not paying any attention to his surroundings. Shiro just shrugs and sets the pizza box on the desk, where Matt will definitely find it soon.

Taking a deep breath, he heads towards Katie’s room, as soon as he steps inside, Keith tenses up and turns towards the door. When he sees Shiro holding the pizza boxes he relaxes and takes the pizzas.

“We didn’t hear the door-bell, sorry about that.”  
“No problem, I already finished my classes, so I’m just laying in bed.” Shiro assures him, trying not to tell Keith he’d feed him by hand if he could.

Before he can embarrass himself any further, he goes back to his room, shuts the door and turns on the computer to watch some Vine compilations. In his way he hears Matt scream “THANKS FOR THE PIE” and smiles fondly.

After some hours, he’s fallen into the Youtube black hole and starts watching ghost-hunting videos when he hears a knock on his door, he glances and Keith is poking his head inside the room, looking like an adorable and handsome Muppet. 

what is wrong with me?

“Hey man, I just wanted to pay you what I owe from the pizza.” He tells him, with a soft, sleepy voice.  
“Oh, don’t worry, I got it.”  
“No,” Keith shakes his head “I don’t like owing people, let me pay you.”  
“Well, how about this, you offered to help me with my hair, so from the supplies’ cost, you discount me the 10$ from the pizza.” Shiro tried to compromise.  
“Yeah, okay, I can do that. Tell me when is good for you to work on your hair, I need to warn you, it really is a process, it’s not just like putting the bleach and washing it and done. It could take from one to three days max.” Before Shiro can answer Keith seems to think of something else and adds “It’s also kind of expensive, granted not as expensive as the salon, but it still costs money.”  
“Keith, it’s no worries, as I told you, I finished my classes already, so whenever it’s good for you it is for me. I didn’t expect it to be fast, or free so don’t worry about that.”  
“Okay, maybe next week, on Monday I’ll buy everything and I can come Tuesday, and then I come back the Wednesday to see if it will need anything more.” Shiro can’t help the tingly feeling he gets of expectation of seeing Keith again.  
“You could give me your number and text me the prize and I’ll have the money ready or transfer it to you.” His voice sounded way too fast and pitchy, he hopes that Keith doesn’t notice. “And you can bring and overnight bag and stay the night if you want.”  
“Awesome, here, put your number on my phone.”

Shiro tries to ignore the fact that his fingers on Keith’s phone are shaking from excitement a little bit. He can’t remember this feeling of anticipation giving his number to another man. He hands the phone to Keith who smiles at him and Shiro feels he can die at peace now. Keith looks at his phone and his smile falters.

“Shit, it’s so late, I need to go, I’ll text you the details.”

And just like that, he disappears, taking with him Shiro’s heart.

 

*Monday*

Unknown Number [mon 13:34]  
hey, it’s keith, quick q, do u use by chance any argan oil or jojoba oil or any kind of oil shampoo/conditioner/hair masks?

Shiro panics and melts inside before answering.

Shiro [mon 13:36]  
Hello Keith, I don’t really know what those are, so my answer is no. Do I need them?

Keith HLJG™ [mon 13:40]  
kinda, so i’ll assume you don’t really take any special care for ur hair?

Shiro [mon 13:41]  
…  
Assume that.

Keith HLJG™ [mon 13:45]  
no worries, you’re not the only one, and tbh your hair seems to look pretty good, so if we take good care of it everything will be ok

[mon 13:56]  
total: 56$ that ok?

Shiro [mon 13:56]  
Yes, it’s okay.  
Do you prefer transfer or cash?

Keith HLJG™ [mon 13:57]  
tbh transfer

Shiro [mon 13:58]  
On it.  
*56 USD Transfer Sent*

Keith HLJG™ [mon 14:02]  
… u didn’t need to send it right away, i haven’t even done anything

Shiro [mon 14:04]  
I trust you.

 

*Tuesday*

When Shiro opens the door, bracing himself for the emotions he’ll definitely get, he opens the door and there is Keith in front of him, gorgeous as he remembered. With a duffel bag hanging from his shoulder, same grey leather jacket (swoon) a white t-shirt with a “We are the Revolution: Love Wins” print, faded blue jeans and same grey combat boots.

Can you be any less perfect? My feelings are sensible.

“Hey man, sorry I’m early, I got up really early in the morning because I had to get my bike from the garage.” He runs his hand through his hair and Shiro’s brain screams.  
“No problem, I get up really early to go to the gym, so I’ve been up for awhile.”

They step inside the living room and Shiro fidgets his hand nervously.

“Well, do we start? Where do you want me?”  
“Naked in your shower.” Keith answers, looking for something on the bag, thankfully he doesn’t see Shiro’s shocked face.  
“What?” He asks with the smallest voice.  
“I got you some argan oil shampoo, conditioner and hair mask. But today I need you to only use the shampoo and conditioner. Did you leave the coconut oil overnight as I asked you to?” He looks so professional and focused, it makes Shiro feel like he’s taking this as a joke.  
“Uh- Yes, yes I did, so I wash it?” Nice going  
“Yeah, but conditioner first and after the shampoo okay? Also leave in the conditioner for about five minutes. Oh and preferably use cold water.” He instructs as he nudges Shiro to the bathroom with the bottles in hand.

No worries, I need a cold shower either way.

Shiro washes his hair and really prays for some strength and control over himself. If his grandpa could see him, he’d probably scold him.

“Takashi, you need to control your emotions, remember, your emotions can open your mind and your heart, but you can’t let them control you.” 

I’ll try Jiisan, I promise.

When Shiro exits the bathroom, the living room is completely changed, there’s towels everywhere, one of the chairs was moved to the center, with one of the kitchen stools next to it. A little table is there too, with a bowl, a brush and some packs and bottles too. Keith seems to have changed his clothes, he’s barefoot sitting on the couch, looking at his phone, he’s has a worn red shirt with a weird robot lion silhouette on, the same faded blue jeans and his hair pulled up in a half up ponytail.  
To Shiro, he looks so soft and cute and domestic and-

Hold on… Are those tattoos?!

Obviously, Handsome Leather Jacket Guy™ had to be Handsome Biker Tattooed Leather Jacket Guy™. Shiro couldn’t really discern what the shapes are, but he can see some tattoos on his right arm, but also some black ink peeking on his shirt’s collar. Shiro swallows saliva so loud that Keith raises his head and gets up. 

“Ready?” Shiro nods, and Keith gestures him to sit on the chair. “Okay, let me explain how this goes, first we apply the bleach with the brush, we let it sit for twenty minutes, wash it off and apply the toner and let it sit probably for 30, depending on how orange it gets after the bleach. If we had to bleach again, we should wait at least three days or preferably a week to do it, but I don’t think we’ll have to.” He starts to run his hands through Shiro’s hair, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand in a weirdly pleasant way. “It will burn, we’re dealing with chemicals, I’ll put some vaseline on your scalp to protect your skin from the harshness, and your hair is kind of protected from the coconut oil you had hydrating and moisturizing your hair overnight. Are these old clothes? Because they will be ruined a little bit.”  
“Yes, they are old.” Shiro answers.  
“Great, any questions?”  
“Nope, I’m all yours.” I wish.  
“Great catch I got.”

It did burn, but it wasn’t that bad, Keith used a brush and his hands to work his way through the hair applying the bleach. 

“So where are Matt and Pidge?” Keith asks after awhile.  
“They went to visit their parents for two weeks, their mother Colleen had a botanic exposition and a conference. I was planning to go but professor Slav wants me to stay and help him with some project.” He hears Keith groan with annoyance.  
“Slav is a partypooper.”

Shiro laughs at the use of such childish vocabulary from such a bad-ass looking young man.

“He can be a little bit difficult, but he really is brilliant.”  
“Are you serious? Have you heard him talk about alternative realities for more than two hours straight?” Keith moves so he can look directly at Shiro with a serious look in his face.  
“It can be a lot, but it’s kind of fascinating to think about that, imagine, Keith and Shiro from another reality, where the difference is our hair colour, or the career paths we’ve chosen, or us but not from Earth or something as small as the place where our scars are.”

Keith moves his hand close to his scar, carefully avoiding touching his skin with the gloves full of bleach, his face indecipherable and Shiro panics.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean, I joke about my scar, it wasn’t my intention to make you feel uncomfortable.”  
“It’s okay, it’s not that, it’s what you said, it just sounds a little bit out of this world and even a little bit romantic.” Pink dusts Keith’s cheeks, and Shiro counts that as a victory.  
“It kind of is...”

They fall into a comfortable silence, Keith puts a plastic cap on Shiro’s head and goes to wash his hands and throw away the gloves. Meanwhile, Shiro takes his alone time to process what happened and breathe calmly.

Keith called romantic his ramblings about them being together in other realities, so maybe he’d be interested in something romantic? Could that be what that meant?

In the middle of his thoughts he feels a hand softly pat him on his back.

“Come on big guy, we need to go wash that out.” Keith tells him.

Having Keith wash his hair is something that Shiro will never forget. So delicate and pleasant movements, holy stars, it felt so good to feel the cold water after the burning bleach on his scalp. It really feels like heaven, so much that a small and embarrassing moan escapes from his mouth. He looks at Keith, not knowing what to say, surprised and probably red-faced. But Keith’s face only shows a slight amusement and endearment, Shiro feels so weak, he almost feels his soul physically fall for the dark haired man.

“Sorry,” he mumbles.  
“It’s all good, I take it as a compliment.”  
“It really does feel good,” Keith starts to dry his hair with a towel, that feels kinda weird from his normal towel, “Is that my towel?”  
“No, this is a microfiber towel, it’s better for your hair and avoids breakage.”  
“Oh, okay, it feels really soft.”  
Keith chuckles, “You need to take more care of your hair, spoil yourself.” He hands Shiro a mirror, “Look, it’s a little bit orange-yellowish, but we’ll change that with the toner.”

Shiro looks at himself and it’s like looking at another person, it does look a little bit like pale orange, but all of it does now, he doesn’t look like a spotted cow anymore. He smiles at Keith and gets a small smile in return. More than enough.

They get up and head again to the chair. “How do you know so much about hair?” Shiro asks, as Keith starts to put on a new set of gloves to apply the toner on his hair.  
“My last foster mom was a hairdresser, and she taught me a lot, she also even let me work at her salon, with pay and all.” Keith’s voice sounds happy but at the same time a little bit melancholic. “She helped me save money for the trip of my scholarship application interview. I was with her for 4 years, with the most stable and kind family I’d ever been.”  
“I’m sorry you had to go through a rough time before that.” Shiro doesn’t know what else to say, but he does know the feeling is genuine.  
“It’s okay, I learned a lot from my years in the system, bouncing from place to place. Also, if I hadn’t maybe I wouldn’t be here with you, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now.” Keith’s smile is the brightest he’s seen so far.

Oh, Shiro’s heart is starting to beat faster, his brain races trying to figure out what to say, not to forward but wanting to make his interest known.

“Well, thank you for telling me, I really appreciate your trust. And I wouldn’t want to be with anyone else either.”  
“To be honest, talking to you, even about that is surprisingly easy, I actually-” Keith pauses, and Shiro turns to face him, his cheeks are again dusted with pink, making his scar stand out even more. Shiro’s metal hand acts on its own and reaches to trace Keith’s mark, millimeters away from touching his skin, Shiro realizes what he’s doing and stops his hand. Keith looks back at him, eyes slightly wide, his blush turns from pink to almost red, reaching the tips of his ears. “I feel really comfortable with you… I might even like you, even if it’s been so fast.” He whispers, and carefully looking at Shiro, he leans towards the metal hand, cupping his own face against the cool palm.

Shiro’s breath hitches, surprised from the contact, but he gets his bearings as soon as he can, he caresses Keith’s cheek and traces his scar carefully.

“I like you too, I started to like you from the second you were in my line of sight. I didn’t have a type until I saw you.” He looks deep into Keith’s purple eyes, looking for the smallest trace of doubt. When he finally decided there was none, he dares ask with the smallest voice “Can I kiss you?”

Keith nods and Shiro gathers all the courage inside him and leans over, closing his eyes. His first impression was how incredible it felt, for a contact as simple as a kiss, it’s amazing how it can feel soft, sweet and earnest. The kiss trailed for longer, getting faster, wetter and more passionate and desperate. Shiro moved his hand to hold Keith from his waist, feeling his surprising layer of hard muscles, and Keith pressed his hands on Shiro’s chest, feeling his pecs, getting a small moan from Shiro.  
Shiro felt out of this world, he genuinely is kissing Keith, after thinking about it after the first day he saw him, and so far it’s the best kiss he’s ever had. He wants to hold Keith so tight, feel him around him and discover all his tattoos and their meaning while kissing his-

The alarm sounds, thirty minutes have passed and they both come back to reality, they both jump, startled. Shiro remembers he has a plastic cap on his head, with a large range of chemicals changing his hair. He looks at Keith, who’s turning off the alarm on his phone. His cheeks and ears are red, his lips also look red and swollen, he has a silly smile in his face, with a tiny bit of anxiety, but when Shiro smiles wide at him, it disappears.

They wash Shiro’s hair and Keith dries it again with a different, dry, microfiber towel, kissing his nose when he finishes. He looks pretty happy for himself when he announces:

“I think it looks pretty good.”

Right, the hair, that’s why we were here in the first place.

And indeed, he looks great, his hair looks all grey-ish white, making him look really different from even before the accident. But it makes sense as he’s not the same Shiro, he’s changed, and looking at himself no longer makes him worry about the big amount of white hairs spreading from his first mop of hair to random parts of his head.  
He looks at Keith and wholeheartedly thanks him. Keith smiles tiredly at him, he asks for a little nap and Shiro guides them to his room, they get to the bed and both shirts are discarded, “bleach smell” Keith justifies, but it seems to be another incentive for this. Shiro covers them both with the comforter and immediately feels the weight of the other man on his chest, snuggling against him, with a last kiss, they close their eyes.

 

When Shiro wakes up, he can hear the sound of rain outside, when he turns to see his companion, he sees him looking out the window, looking peaceful.

“It has been raining a lot” Shiro says casually.  
Keith snorts without even looking at him. “Are you talking about the weather?”  
“As long as it’s with you, I can talk about anything.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Once again, all mistakes are my own and you can find me on twitter as @aysaturnbaby and tumblr (what is tumblr anymore?) mari-esponja.


End file.
